1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the area of agitating, and more particularly, to a pan rack support for a mixing machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically mixing machines in the food processing industry have a gear head driving a beater shaft attached to a beater that extends into a mixing bowl supported on the mixing machine. Many mixing machines further have a power take off at the front of the gear head to which processing attachments, such as dicers, slicers, grinders or other processing attachments may be connected. The processing attachment discharges processed food forward of the mixing machine and its bowl support. Therefore, support attachments are available which connect to the mixing machine and support a pan or tray to receive the processed food from the processing attachment.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,486, discloses a solid platform for a mixer with a horizontal pin that inserts a hole in the bowl support. The platform also has holes in side extending wings that receive pins on the bowl support thereby mounting the platform to the bowl support for holding a pan beneath a grinding attachment attached to the front end of the mixer.
Other pan racks are commercially available which are comprised of a wire frame construction having a similar horizontal end pin that inserts into a hole in the bowl support. The wire frame pan rack has a cross member with holes for receiving the bowl support pins thereby mounting the pan rack on the bowl support. The pan rack has a first section for supporting the pan and a second section offset vertically above the first section which contains the cross member and horizontal pin. The outer end of the first section is tilted vertically upward approximately 4.degree. with respect to the horizontal which helps hold the pan on the rack. A disadvantage of this pan rack is that cross member may become bent during handling and use which will cause a misalignment of the holes relative to each other and the horizontal end pin.
The above rack designs have the disadvantage of utilizing the pins and hole on the bowl support of the mixers. Utilization of the existing pins and hole requires that the mating holes and pin on the rack be adapted to accommodate the variations in diameter of the bowl support pins and hole and relative locations thereof. Reducing the diameter of the mating components on the rack to accommodate all possible variations of bowl support pin and hole size may result in a rack that can be mounted on every machine but does not fit properly on any machine. That is, the rack fits so loosely that it vibrates, is noisy and does not appear to be a quality product. There are further disadvantages in that the construction of prior racks and the machining requirements for manufacturing increase their cost.